Andrea Badgley: Creating remote frameworks for growth
Andrea Badgley is a role model for me. She used to be a fellow team lead at Automattic before moving on to a bigger stage as Director of Operations for the Support Driven Community. One of the more visible projects she’s been involved in these past months has been the Support Driven Leadership Summit in October and bringing the Support Driven Expo to Europe. Next year in May, the first Support Driven Conference in Europe will take place in Belgrade (and you can apply as a speaker).
The difference between a good remote team and a great remote team? Communication!
Communication is the backbone of any remote team’s success. For Andrea Badgley, communication is much more than talking to each other, or sending in a weekly report about what you’ve done. Real communication needs a structure and a commitment from those who need to communicate. The structure and the tools are relatively easy to define: at Support Driven they use Slack, Basecamp and Zoom. Andrea has weekly 1:1s with team members and a weekly team calls. But she takes it a step further.
Status updates are the bare minimum of communication. It might be enough to ensure accountability, but it does not spark new ideas or fulfill growth potential. Instead, Andrea thrives on asking questions. Admitting that she does not know everything, wondering out loud and knowing how to really listen, those are her superpowers.
Clear rules that allow growth
Andrea wants to intentionally create a culture that serves everyone. It is her mission to be hyper-aware of how Support Driven grows. Processes and guidelines should exist to empower customers and employees alike. Sometimes this means going against the gospel of typical tech-company perks: SD does not offer an open vacation policy that too often results in employees not taking any time off. On the flip side, the company is actively working towards freeing up Fridays for reflection - and free time.
Clear rules don’t need to suffocate. Instead, they can evolve into guidelines that make it possible to play, and to excel.
To find more about Andrea, visit her profile on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrea-badgley-55368486/
To read her writing, check her blogs: https://andreabadgley.blog andhttps://career.andreabadgley.blog/
You can find out more about Support Driven here: https://supportdriven.com
Andrea Badgley is one of the experts I interviewed for my latest book, full of ideas, processes and practical exercises around leading a successful team – remotely.
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